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| EDITORIAL VIEWS | |
 November 28, 2000  |
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Is
the country's patience for this year's drawn-out election debate wearing
thin? Four editorial page editors from newspapers across the country weigh
in on the topic.
The NewsHour Media Unit is funded by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.
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Bruce Dold, let me quote something that you published in an editorial yesterday. You said "Gore's determination to keep fighting after Sunday presents, quote, an unappealing portrait of a man who wants to be a winner at any cost." What are you calling on him to do? |
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| Should Gore give up? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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TERENCE SMITH: So you would have him concede? BRUCE DOLD: I think he should. TERENCE SMITH: Cynthia Tucker, let me quote, you've written "it's time to chill, people, that Gore has, quote, the right to play out the legal challenges." So should he stay the course? CYNTHIA TUCKER: Absolutely. And that's not indefinite, Terry. I believe as well that the December 12 deadline is important. But that is more than two weeks away. As Gore said this morning, he has laid out a schedule that he is hoping that the court will impose that will get this hand-count done in a mere seven days. And that avoids any kind of crisis. Of course, the Bush team is opposing that. And let me disagree with one thing I heard earlier. The certification does not change anything. Al Gore has asked for the same thing all along: A hand recount in three counties that, yes, are heavily Democratic. But if George Bush thinks that's unfair, he should have asked for a hand recount of all of Florida. Gore asked that at one point. It seems to me the only way to judge this election fairly, where the results are this close and there were problems with many ballots, is to do a hand recount. There is plenty of time to get that done before December 12. TERENCE SMITH: A hand recount of the selected counties or the entire state?
TERENCE SMITH: All right. Rachelle Cohen, in your lead editorial yesterday, you wrote, "if there were a shred of honesty and decency left in Vice President Gore, he would concede this election to the man who won it." Well, why? Why now? RACHELLE COHEN: Why now? And to disagree, however respectfully, with Cynthia, certification to us meant a lot. It does solidify Gore's... Excuse me, George Bush's victory here. The numbers are real. I think one can only count and recount ballots so often. One can only change the rules of this game so often. Before Al Gore begins to do a grave disservice to this nation, a grave disservice to his party, and certainly a grave disservice to his own political future. TERENCE SMITH: So, therefore, it's over? RACHELLE COHEN: Therefore, it's over. It's time he concedes before he puts the nation and certainly the state of Florida through any more trauma and drama than it's already endured. I would not like to see this go to the legislature if that can be avoided. |
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| Has the legal war run its course? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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TERENCE SMITH: All right. John Diaz, you wrote, quote, the legal war has not run its course. Are you arguing that it should be allowed to?
TERENCE SMITH: Bruce Dold, since the argument before the Supreme Court is not until Friday, why should either candidate concede or do anything at this point? BRUCE DOLD: I think the Supreme Court case is almost moot. It's really... The Supreme Court is now arguing over 300- some votes. If the court overturns the Florida Supreme Court, presumably you revert back to Katherine Harris's intention of certifying at an earlier date and George Bush leads by 930 votes. If the Supreme Court upholds the Florida court, you have that certification on Sunday, which was done by the rules of the Florida Supreme Court. I want to say one other thing too about 10,000 ballots. In Cook County, Illinois there were 120,000 ballots that did not express a vote for president. In the Illinois primary in Cook County, 10% of the voters did not express a preference, so that doesn't necessarily mean in Miami that those people intended to vote and were denied. They may have simply just not wanted to vote. TERENCE SMITH: Cynthia Tucker, what do you think?
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| A momentary certification? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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TERENCE SMITH: Rachelle Cohen, what about Cynthia's argument that the certification that you placed such faith in on Sunday night was only that of that moment, and not the total?
TERENCE SMITH: John Diaz, some polls suggest that the public patience is wearing a bit thin on this. Is that your impression? JOHN DIAZ: I think it is. And I think the window of opportunity for Al Gore to challenge this election is running out quickly. I think the pivotal time is going to be when it finally gets to the U.S. Supreme Court. In your earlier segment Jeffrey Rosen talked about that there were legal avenues available to Al Gore even if he were to lose in the Supreme Court. But my suspicion is once the U.S. Supreme Court rules, I think there's going to be a great push from the country for finality on this election.
BRUCE DOLD: I think the Supreme Court will have a lot to do with public opinion. I think legally it won't close off Al Gore, but I think a loss in the Supreme Court would make it very, very difficult for him to go forward. But I would anticipate he probably will prevail in the Supreme Court. But I think with every day you're going to see public opinion polls turn more and more towards a sense of let's get this over with now. |
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| The public relations batttle | ||||||||||||||||||||
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TERENCE SMITH: Cynthia Tucker, there's also of course a public relations and political battle going on alongside the legal one by both Vice President Gore and Governor Bush. How do you think the two men have conducted themselves?
TERENCE SMITH: Rachelle Cohen, what do you think? George Bush has taken some criticism for apparently moving ahead with a transition phase with the suggestion of some appointments. What have you thought of the way he's conducted himself? RACHELLE COHEN: Well, certainly in terms of the transition, I think he really had very few choices. You can't put off those kinds of personnel decisions indefinitely. And frankly the fact that our own native son Andy Card is going to be chief of staff comes as very good news in these quarters. But that aside, there are... The transition process has to move forward, and I don't think you can put off those sorts of decisions forever while the courts do their thing and the Gore legal team does its thing. TERENCE SMITH: Okay. Thank you all four very much. |
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TERENCE
SMITH: We get that sampling this evening from NewsHour regular, Cynthia
Tucker of The Atlanta Constitution. She is joined tonight by Bruce Dold
of The Chicago Tribune, John Diaz of The San Francisco Chronicle, and
Rachelle Cohen of The Boston Herald. Welcome to you all. 
BRUCE
DOLD: We called on him to give it up, to quit the election on Monday.
I think we waited for three weeks. We had said for the better part of
three weeks that you should have a uniform count statewide whether it's
by machine or by hand. It has to be a uniform count. I think with the
certification now, Gore's legal strategy is not to get such a count
even though he told the public that today but to get an extraordinary
count in those Democratic-leaning areas. And by doing that, you're going
to push this right up to deadline and the best that he hopes for is
that kind of an extraordinary count. And I don't think the public is
going to stand for that. I think it's all but going to invite the Florida
legislature or Congress to intervene. 
CYNTHIA
TUCKER: Well, I personally would prefer a hand recount of the entire
state. But George Bush has had the opportunity to ask for that but has
refused to do so. 
JOHN
DIAZ: Terence, absolutely. I think at this point, al Gore's strongest
argument, James Baker talked this morning about how the ballots have
been counted and recounted and recounted. But the fact of the matter
is the core of al Gore's argument is that in Miami-Dade County, there
were 10,000 ballots that went through the machine in which no presidential
preference was indicated. And those-- the overwhelming majority of those
have not been looked at all. I don't think it's unreasonable when we're
talking about the election of a presidency to at least take one look
to see if there was some kind of indication of what the voters wanted
to do. 
CYNTHIA
TUCKER: I think that there was an extraordinarily high number of people
in South Florida who, for one reason or another, were unable to express
their preference in the presidential vote. We've heard about all kinds
of irregularities from confusing ballots to machines that did not work
very well. We heard earlier in the news segment from voters talking
about trying to punch through the chad and not being able to do so.
Also, I think the difference that it makes in Florida is that the count
is so close. In an election where the count is not close, it doesn't
matter so much whether 10,000 ballots or 100,000 ballots are thrown
out. But at the moment, George W. Bush leads by only 537 votes. The
people who make the voting machines say that at best they're only 99.99
percent right. But in this case, that .01 percent is enough that it
could make the difference in this race, and that is why, by the way,
both Florida law and Texas law provide for hand recounts. And we have
not counted over and over and over. Because of a campaign of intimidation
by the Republican Party, the hand recount has not been completed in
some counties. 
RACHELLE
COHEN: Well, that certification is the one called for first by the secretary
of state and then by the Florida Supreme Court, however much delayed.
I would love to address Cynthia's point about this alleged intimidation.
Even the people who were among the board of canvassers now concede that
there was no intimidation. There was no one arrested during those so-called
intimidating demonstrations. And what we saw happening in Miami-Dade
County was we saw a board of canvassers that decided initially Democratically
dominated board of canvasser not to recount ballots once. They were
intimidated, if anything, by the Gore legal team to at least do a partial
recount, the so-called three precinct recount. They found six votes
difference. They said, this is it, never mind. They were once again
intimidated by the Gore legal team into recounting, came back, decided
one more time that they weren't going to recount, one more time the
Gore legal team came in. It was hardly a surprise that at the end of
the day the Miami-Dade board of canvassers opted not to recount and
used whatever excuse was handy. They clearly didn't want to do so from
the beginning, and I sincerely doubt that the demonstrators had anything
at all to do with their decision. 
TERENCE
SMITH: Bruce Dold, do you think there's a drop-dead date in effect?
CYNTHIA
TUCKER: Well, I don't think either man would win any huge points here
for the way he has conducted himself. I think either man would find
himself in a very weak presidency, struggling to gain credibility. But
unfortunately most of the very ugly language and intimidation has come
from the GOP side. I don't care how many times it's denied, the simple
fact of the matter is there was a near riot outside the courthouse or
the canvassing site when the Miami-Dade canvassing board was trying
to count. No, they're not going to come out and admit they were scared
to death of those people, but certainly they ended their hand recount
shortly after that. There have been all kinds of charges of stealing
the election from the GOP side, and so far each team has conducted himself
legally. So I don't think either man would get any huge points here.
And unfortunately the rhetoric that is now following this campaign is
going to make it very difficult, I think, for either man to govern.